Yesterday (Part Two - Chapters 27 & 28) (Patreon)

CHAPTER 27

It was seven o'clock in the morning when the nurse stepped confidently into the room to see Adrian, and when she opened her eyes it seemed to Eva that she had been subjected to those hospital drills forever.

What had become of her life?

Her friends vanished after the funeral. They avoided drama, she already knew that, but she had expected more from them. Hated they were so shallow.

When all that was over, she was going to clean house.

Laura was still asleep on the couch in the cabinet adjacent to the room and Eva decided not to wake her, as they had been up late into the night.

Adrian had stayed still all night. However, this time she had heard his rhythmic breathing while sleeping. And although that gentle compass relaxed her, she stayed alert all night in case it stopped or changed. She kept vigilant not to let him slip away again.

A few minutes passed, and as the nurse did her duties, Eva sighed. Adrian seemed to be more responsive, but he hadn't woken up.

—How is he?

—Everything seems to be going well. The doctor will be in shortly.

Eva paled at the prospect of hearing more medical technicalities, but decided it was not time to comment.

Laura heard the last part of the conversation from the couch. She interrupted them.

—Do you know how long the doctor will be? — She asked.

—An hour or so, maybe you could go out for breakfast if you like, you have plenty of time.

Laura pushed Eva out of the room with her. She felt that she had to do something about the situation, and she would start by calling her father once they had breakfast. They needed to sort things out somehow, because her "antenna" had started working again and was shouting at her that all of it was all terribly related to the conversation she had had with him the afternoon before.

CHAPTER 28

Somewhere it was spring and 1974 was more than just a number for memories.

Gabriel and Sophie had been living in the Harperin Corporation's facilities for two years, and when they arrived in the summer of '72, they agreed to leave all of those parameters behind.

It was essential for the experiment on which they were to embark that they broke with everything that reminded them of their past, and embraced the future full of promise that they were assured they would find under the umbrella of the Corporation. A future of science, technology, humanism and dreams of a better world awaited them in Olympos.

They had no idea then how much they would end up regretting that decision.

The massive hangar was empty. A vast blackness surrounded them and the dense air had a metallic, damp taste. Huge arches of forged cement were visible in the distance. A thin catwalk covered by a wire mesh dotted with tiny lights connected them creating an upper passage.

Gabriel and Sophie stopped quietly for a second. Their slender, black-robed figures were almost invisible in the darkness, but they could not afford to be overconfident. They knew that a sentry made his early morning round every ten minutes across that footbridge. And there was little left for the next one.

They made some silent signs with their hands and decided to hide behind a row of heavy bundles to resume their escape once the guard had crossed the bridge again.

Gabriel adjusted Sophie's rubber cap and gave her a tender kiss with her head in his hands. Her deep blue eyes gazed back at him with determination. They were going to make it.

Eventually, the sentry flanked the walkway martially. They were alone again. Sophie let the adrenaline flow and took the initiative.

They advanced nimbly, groping in the darkness towards the west wall. A few meters before, they found two wide, weakly luminescent yellow lines painted on the ground indicating the exit. The automatic door slid silently before them with a gas whistle as they approached.

A large white plastic cylinder served as a corridor. The light surrounding the huge duct seemed to be coming from everywhere. On the floor, a low expanded metal walkway was painted with arrows pointing towards the next door.

The hatch closed behind them and Sophie took out a small plastic perforated card from her top pocket. She carefully inserted it into the slot next to the next floodgate.

After a second that took forever, a pneumatic valve hissed and the door slid ceremoniously allowing them to cross over into the next airtight compartment. They were already on the children's wards.

Gabriel carefully placed his backpack on the ground and quickly walked to a glowing console in front of the entrance door. He reached into his pocket, pulled out another perforated card and inserted it into the terminal. He typed a sequence on the keyboard and waited.

The screen blinked and he raised his eyebrows. There it was. The babies were really there.

Excited, he pointed at the green line of text on the screen and she squeezed his arm excitedly.

—They're here!

—Yes, my love,— Gabriel whispered to her, —go get them, I'll disable the alarm and watch the door.

Sophie cautiously lifted a translucent plastic curtain at the back of the room and stepped into another hallway. This led into the cubicles where they kept the babies in an induced coma for long periods of time, as part of their conditioning.

She and Gabriel discovered not long ago that this was one of the tortures they were subjecting their newborn children to in the name of science.

They were recruited by the Corporation upon completion of their college degrees. They were invited to a lecture and on their way out they were offered some proficiency tests that they passed with flying colors. At first, they found it to be an exciting project, a unique opportunity, and a good omen for both of them to be chosen at the same time.

Two and a half years later, a week after the twins were born, several alarming events made them change their minds. From then on, their only goal was to be prepared for that night when they would take their babies away from that madness.

They did not let them meet their babies; the newborns were taken away from Sophie. They were told that these were the new rules. Each Olympian would fulfill his or her potential, allowing the community to take care of the children, all of them together, without distinction or traumatic parental relationships in their growth.

They found the logic of such an approach visionary and, although they certainly found it hard to accept, they reluctantly accepted after the promise that they would be allowed to see them soon after; this until Gabriel found out what the Corporation really planned for those babies.

Sophie was a geneticist, and her major was molecular biology. She took up this specialty once within the Corporation. During her career, she knew that theoretical foundations were being established for that type of disciplines, but it was not until they joined there that she was able to confirm that what she had been promised was true, because in that place, many of those theories were already a reality.

Gabriel was studying industrial engineering when they met. That was on campus, a winter afternoon they would never forget.

He was smoking a cigarette under one of the rectory's arches, she came over to ask him for a light. Her resolute gaze and her thick, long red hair immediately won him over.

Sophie wore a turtleneck sweater that enhanced her athletic figure and her crossed arms held a handful of notebooks of various colors. She asked for a light with a gesture and he did his best not to be clumsy when lighting the match. He had studied Alain Delon's way of doing it in the movies. She gave her cigar a deep puff and kept looking into his eyes, studying him in a way that began to make him uncomfortable.

—Do you come here often? — Sophie asked, breaking the silence.

—I also study here,— admitted Gabriel, immediately regretting his clumsy answer.

—I see,— she smiled, —Fancy for a walk?

Some time later, Sophie confessed to Gabriel that she provoked that meeting on purpose. She had been trying to meet him alone for almost a month. She couldn't forget him since they crossed paths one morning at the bus stop.

They soon discovered they were a perfect match, and spent countless evenings talking about both the divine and the human in their favorite café near the University. By the time they finished their degrees they were living together in a tiny attic in Rue du Val de Grâce. It was then when that member of the Harperin Corporation contacted them.

Having the babies was an eye-opening moment for Sophie. During the pregnancy she was always sure she could share them with the community without problems, but in the middle of giving birth something began to change in her head. When they were taken away, she felt an emptiness unknown to her, and when that anguish became unbearable she decided to share it with Gabriel. Together they decided to find their babies, and in the process they unwittingly discovered the dark plan behind that experiment, and the discovery made them tremble with fear and anger.

They had to do something.

But they had to escape first and get the children to safety.

Sophie carried a small first aid kit in one of the side pockets of her pants from which she took a vial and two syringes. She expertly extracted the necessary dose for each injection and entered the first of the cubicles. The two babies lay inert in two incubators. They had been put on respirators and had several catheters draining their tiny bodies, but she was sure that once they woke up they would not need them again, as long as they took their meds regularly.

She delicately injected the serum through the holes in the incubators and after waiting three minutes on her wristwatch began carefully de-intubating them. She had to include a small amount of sedative in the mixture so that the babies would not give them away crying as they ran away, and she made a mental note that their breathing should be closely monitored for the first few minutes.

Gabriel arrived at Sophie's side and by raising his thumb, he opened the bag he had with him. He took out two light kangaroo-type harnesses in which they would carry the babies during their escape.

A few minutes went by which took forever until Sophie decided it was safe to transport them.

Now came the most difficult part: escaping from Olympos.

Gabriel and Sophie had never left the compound after their arrival. It was strictly forbidden to do so, since that was one of the foundations of the experiment as they described it, to test the viability of an isolated community over a long period of time. A community dedicated to research and to the physical and mental improvement of all its members.

Gabriel was able to take the blueprints of the upper floor of the facility long enough to map out a viable escape route. That floor was dedicated almost entirely to ventilation machinery and water tanks. Upon close examination of one of the quadrants, he found what promised to be a conduit to the outside.

They went back out to the hangar carrying the children and headed for the north wall of the compound, rushing under the large concrete arches. On the left side of the wall was a metal maintenance ladder embedded in the concrete, and at the end, near the beginning of the arched roof, was a row of large vents. They started the climb after synchronizing their chronometers again. They had to be careful, as the wall rose right in front of the surveillance footbridge.

Several minutes later, they reached the mouth of one of the immense ventilation tunnels leading to the wall. The tunnel had two thin rows of light bulbs on the ground that continued on until disappearing into the darkness.

Once inside, the temperature dropped dramatically and Sophie made sure the babies were well protected before continuing.

Some 100 meters further on, they reached an emergency door. A tiny red light was flashing in the service box on their right. Gabriel pulled out a small plastic device resembling a battery, from which he removed two thin wires that he carefully inserted into the door device. Red numbers appeared on the box, and after a few seconds, a four-digit code was completed, unlocking the door.

They found themselves at the beginning of a wide staircase that split a small abandoned hemicycle in two. They carefully walked down it and at the end they discovered that what looked like a wall, was in fact a large observation deck made of glass soiled by disuse. Gabriel rubbed the glass. From there extended a farm of enormous steel metal deposits joined by metal tubes. Sophie meanwhile noticed a gap in the floor at the end of the observation deck that led to a metal staircase. They went down there and bordered the enclosure through an elevated walkway until they reached their destination, a small, rounded-edged metal gate with a steering wheel in the middle.

After carefully turning the rudder, the gate opened and they entered a dreary passage. It was very humid and smelled bad. After closing the gate, Sophie put a handkerchief in her nose trying to mitigate the smell and reached out with her other hand to Gabriel, letting him know that it was safe to turn on his flashlight.

—We're close,— he said, — try not to trip over anything.

With every step they took they found more dirt on the floor and walls. It was as if no one had passed through there in years.

—Are you sure we'll find an exit nearby? — whispered Sophie concerned —this seems abandoned and unhealthy.

Gabriel put his index finger to his lips and pointed to a dome on the roof of the passageway a few feet away.

The dome was crowned by a circular opening covered by a metal grid from which all kinds of filth oozed. Sophie grimaced as she approached it, the smell was nauseating. The hole was soaked with drops of a blackish liquid.

—A drain? —Here?

—Excuse me for a second— Gabriel asked her, taking a small blowtorch from his backpack.

Gabriel took some time until he finished melting the hinges of the grid. Sophie was worried because the babies were starting to seem a little restless. She didn't know how long it would take for them to become fully conscious, and she feared it would be impossible to calm them down in there.

He climbed up through the opening and threw the end of his belt to Sophie to help her climb up. He suspected that they had found a sewage system. It looked like it, he repeated to reassure himself.

—Now all we have to do is find a floodgate,— whispered Gabriel in hope.

—Let’s hurry, the children are waking up.

Gabriel looked sideways and decided that they would keep moving in the opposite direction of the facility.

Better to get away, he told himself.

They found a metal ladder and climbed it. And at last, a heavy dark metal lid was waiting for them at the end. Gabriel slid it carefully, as he was not sure where it would lead them or what would be the time outside.

The chill of the night hit Gabriel's face hard. He took a deep breath and felt as if his lungs were breathing for the first time. He suppressed a sneeze and glanced around relieved to find that they were sheltered inside some kind of flower bed surrounded by a dense hedge. A park perhaps. He encouraged Sophie to follow him and they lay down for a few seconds on the grass and the dry leaves before returning the lid to its place. Sophie smiled excitedly at Gabriel and, holding hands, they stood up to look over the hedge.

Before them, majestically lit, stood the Eiffel Tower. They looked at each other with emotion. They had managed to escape. Now they had to get to Nice.